Gun Club Closes Membership

[smle-man]

The club I belong to has always had relatively few members. This is a pleasure. Most of the time when I come out to shoot there are only a few people present and often I am the only one there. In the last few months, along with the sudden increase in demand for ammo, components, and guns, we became flooded with applications. So the board of directors decided to cap the membership and we have now reached the limit. If someone wants to join they have to go on a waiting list until someone else is gone. I would be interested in knowing if other clubs have had a similar experience.

I think clubs that do this sort of thing to the extreme are hurting the shooting hobby. If folks can't find a place to shoot legally and safely they will either do it illegally and unsafely and give shooting a bad name or give up and take up golf (shudder) instead. That flood of new members will eventually trim itself down as the enthusiasm tempers a bit and the range line will go back to a reasonable level. Without a steady supply of new shooters the shooting hobby will dwindle and die away all in the name of not wanting others on the range. Clubs should encourage membership rather than turn folks away. I see too much of this exclusion attitude in other parts of the shooting crowd too (wrong type of firearms, wrong type of shooting, etc) and it is a shame.